The present invention relates in general to sewing machines, and in particular to a new and useful sewing machine with a needle capable of moving up and down and presser foot which is periodically moved up and down by means of a drive mechanism for carrying out manual feed movements of the sewing material, and including a holding device for the sewing material which is connectable at the beginning of a seam section to be sewn, and disconnectable after a brief predetermined number of stitching procedures.
Such sewing machines, known, for example from German GM (utility model) No. 1 961 375, are useful for making lounge jackets and coats with underlying padding, sewing in linings and for the production and sewing on of shoulder pads. Since, with these sewing machines, the transporting of the sewing material is usually carried out by hand and thus very large movements of several centimeters sometimes take place, the danger exists at the start of the sewing operation, that the thread knot formed at the first stitch, which is not yet firmly anchored in the sewing material, will become undone. This danger is greater the shorter the thread ends are at the start of sewing. Since in the case of sewing machines with a thread-cutting arrangement, in contrast to manual thread cutting, comparatively short thread ends are produced that are connected to the actual thread supply. For that reason an increased danger of undoing the first thread knot exists with such machines, or else sewing on the first thread part requires special attention and caution from the operator.